Partition assemblies are commonly used to divide boxes, crates and the like into a plurality of cells for containing and protecting goods such as bottles, cans or other containers. These assemblies are commonly inserted in the boxes and filled by automatic machinery. The present invention relates to the art of such partitions and more particularly to a novel structure and arrangement of partition strips, slots and tabular projections which provide improved stability to the partition assembly in both the open and collapsed conditions.
The art of providing protective partition assemblies for glass containers and the like is illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,612 to Schaefer. In prior art partition assemblies, longitudinal and transverse partition strips are interlocked to provide cells for enclosing the containers; however, such assemblies lack the degree of stability desired in the outer cell walls, the cells most prone to distortion, because the design of the partition strips leaves much of these outer cell walls unsupported. Without support at the ends of the strips, the outer cell walls are easily bent, deflected or distorted from the proper position in the assembly which can cause interference with the loading of the containers as the containers strike the edges of the distorted walls.
In some prior art assemblies, tabs located at the edges of the longitudinal partition strips interlock with notches of transverse strips, and tabs of transverse strips similarly interlock in notches of longitudinal strips. The tabs on each strip all face in one direction so that, consequently, the cell walls formed at one end of the longitudinal strips have no tabs which interlock in notches of the transverse strip. Likewise, the cell walls formed at one end of the transverse strips have no tabs which interlock in notches of the longitudinal strip. Thus, about half of the outer cell walls are left relatively weak and flimsy often resulting in expensive down time on the automatic loading equipment, due to jamming and the like.
The partition assembly of the present invention overcomes these problems and provides significant advantages in providing an assembly wherein all the outer cell walls, the outer sections of each of the strips, are supported with interlocking tabs and notches to greatly increase stability and reduce distortion and down time during insertion and packaging. This is accomplished by reversing the tab at one end of each strip so that each strip has tabs at opposite ends that face each other. Thus, each longitudinal strip has a set of sections or walls, including one end section, which have tabs facing in the same direction and in alignment with each other, adapted to interlock in notches of similarly sectionalized transverse partition strips. It also has a section at the opposite end which has a tab also aligned with the others in the strip, but facing in the opposite direction. This tab interlocks with a notch in a transverse or cross strip so that the sections at both ends of the strip are locked and cannot be displaced to distort the cells which they form. Stabilization is provided at the edge of the longitudinal strip opposite the tabs by wide band area which connects each section to its adjacent section, relatively shallow notches being formed in alignment with and in the edge opposite the tabs.
Transverse strips are inverted relative to the longitudinal strips, but are otherwise similarly formed with tabs at opposite ends facing each other. The longitudinal and transverse strips interfit with the tabs of one interlocked in the notches of the other to provide stability for all the outer cell walls.
In one embodiment of the invention, only one set of strips, either transverse or longitudinal, has oppositely facing tabs on the end sections. This set of strips is arranged so as to have its tabs on the top side of the partition assembly to provide support against distortion at the tops of the outer cells where the containers enter during loading.
The present invention provides additional advantages. In the collapsed or flat condition of the assembly, the oppositely facing tabs help prevent the strips from coming apart during shipping, handling, and loading operations, thus increasing reliability and reducing the possibility of damage to the assembly. Also, the stacking strength of the loaded assemblies is increased because the walls of the cells are maintained relatively straight and thus support more weight than an assembly with distorted cell walls.
These and other advantages will become apparent from the detailed description to follow.